The technology built into our phones and computers to serve ads may also end up serving as government surveillance.
Mobile app and ad network intelligence paints a highly detailed picture of the online activities of billions of devices. Logs and technical information generate valuable cybersecurity data that governments around the world are eager to obtain. When combined with classified data held by the government, it can give an even more detailed picture of a person’s behavior both online and in the real world. A recent report by the US intelligence community said that data collected by consumer technologies exposes sensitive information about everyone “in ways that far fewer Americans seem to understand and even fewer of them can avoid”.
The Wall Street Journal identified a network of ad brokers and exchanges whose data flowed from applications to the Defense Department and intelligence agencies through a company called
Near Intelligence NIR 5.26% up; green triangle up
India-based Near Intelligence with offices in the US and France was until earlier this year pulling data from other brokers and ad networks. It had several contracts with government contractors who then passed that data on to intelligence agencies and US military commands, according to people familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by the Journal.
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